Were the Winter Meetings lobby a ticketed attraction (and maybe we shouldn't give people ideas here), then the Chris Sale trade that went down on Tuesday at the Gaylord National Resort & Conference Center would allow this year's event to qualify as money well spent. This is the kind of stuff we come for -- the big, bold splash involving a perennial All-Star and Cy Young Award candidate who is, ahem, changing Sox.
More»Hahn on staying patient while continuing to rebuild

Mere minutes from the seat of government, on the shores of the Potomac, they developed a retail and entertainment complex and gave it a name that, accurately or not, evokes images of docks and ports where vessels are supplied with or relieved of precious cargo.
More»Castrovince on Dodgers, Nats and Giants biggest needs

The new Collective Bargaining Agreement will award home-field advantage in the World Series to the team with the better regular-season record. So how different would baseball history look had this been the procedure all along?
More» Bill Mazeroski's World Series Walk-off

Back in the Burgh's dark days, when the streak of losing seasons was nearing the legal drinking age and the Pirates were still something of a punchline, Andrew McCutchen signed on to stay. And with that 2012 stroke of the pen on a six-year extension that rated then and still rates today as team-friendly, the man they call Cutch confirmed his clout as the unquestioned face of the franchise, the superstar who stuck around and helped bring the Bucs back into the limelight.
More»MLB Tonight on whether Pirates are shopping Cutch

Mike Trout and Kris Bryant were born 150 days apart and, relatively speaking, not that many days ago. Both of them played the 2016 season at age 24. But their inherent youngness hasn't stopped them from making history on the field of play and, on Thursday night, in the Baseball Writers' Association's Most Valuable Player awards unveiling.
More»Trout and Bryant dazzle throughout 2016, win MVPs

They are venerable individual honors and, ergo, great sources of discussion and dispute. Nobody could argue against the value of winning one of the Most Valuable Player awards, which will be handed out by the Baseball Writers' Association of America at 6 p.m. ET tonight on MLB Network.
More»2016 AL MVP Award finalists get announced

Terry Francona and Dave Roberts both had seasons worthy of celebration, and the Baseball Writers' Association of America got it right in recognizing them Tuesday night with the American League and National League Manager of the Year Awards.
More»Francona discusses managing the 2016 Indians

Rajai Davis hit that home run, and I thought about James. When amazing things start happening in the wake of such a loss, you start to wonder if somewhere there's a tiny hand wrapped around your world.
More» Hamilton calls Davis' game-tying homer

If the Tribe beats the Cubs in a Game 7, belabors the "Curse of the Billy Goat" while simultaneously ending the Indians franchise's own 68-year drought, that's some extreme stuff right there. If the Indians lose this ballgame, with their ace on the mound and their home crowd behind them, they will fall into such a black historical hole that they'll conjure up conversation about whether all that LeBron James-enabled mojo really did transform a city, or if, you know, a solitary basketball team just so happened to win one -- an outlier amid the agony.
More» Indians fans react after WS Game 6 loss

The relationship that we witness between umpire and manager often involves confrontation. Before replay review, the two parties could argue just about anything. These days, skirmishes over balls and strikes suffice. But in this World Series, umpire John Hirschbeck and Indians manager Terry Francona feel genuine affection for one another off the field, especially as the umpire's long career winds down to its final innings.
More»Hirschbeck discusses retiring after the World Series

They have admirably made the most of the frustrating fact that this Indians team has put itself a win away from a World Series title without them. But for Michael Brantley and Carlos Carrasco, no matter what they say publicly (and Brantley, true to form, says very little), this postseason run has mixed the bitter with the sweet, and the agony of injury eats away at them.
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By Anthony Castrovince/MLB.com On Twitter: @Castrovince On the day Robinson Cano got $240 million from the Mariners and Curtis Granderson got $60 million from the Mets and Scott Feldman got $30 million from the Astros, Chris Antonetti met with reporters in the Terrace Club at Progressive Field to discussâ¦ uhâ¦ the chicken marsala lunch special? […]
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By Anthony Castrovince/MLB.com On Twitter: @Castrovince NOTE: This post has been updated with news of the Indians coming to an agreement with David Murphy. A small sliver of insight into the Tribeâs offseason spending strategy rests in the simple fact that when Tim Hudson fielded final offers earlier this week, the Indians had made what […]
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By Anthony Castrovince/MLB.com On Twitter: @Castrovince When it was over, and the sea of red had begun to disperse, revealing the undertow of green plastic seats, a few hundred fans remained near the home dugout, standing, applauding. This American League Wild Card game against the Tampa Bay Rays did not go to plan Wednesday night. […]
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By Anthony Castrovince/MLB.com On Twitter: @Castrovince The last club Terry Francona managed went 7-20 in September to complete one of the great collapses in baseball history and end his otherwise successful tenure in Boston. This Tribe club managed by Francona went 21-6 in September to complete a stunning surge that, while undoubtedly schedule-aided, rejuvenated local […]
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By Anthony Castrovince/MLB.com On Twitter: @Castrovince Totally did not see this coming. I was optimistic, but not this optimistic. I was a believer, but not this big a believer. I knew the Indians would be better this year, and not just because things couldnât have gotten much worse than the 2012 freefall. I knew an […]
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By Anthony Castrovince/MLB.com On Twitter: @Castrovince Within a whisker of a postseason berth, the Indians are coming to the conclusion that they have no closer. Chris Perez is not a closer right now. With a 7.85 ERA, .350 average against and 1.116 OPS against in 18 1/3 innings over his last 19 appearances, heâs a […]
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By Anthony Castrovince/MLB.com On Twitter: @Castrovince A Boston beat reporter got in touch with me the other day, because he has an AL Manager of the Year vote and he wanted to make sure he did his due diligence all the candidates, rather than just circling John Farrellâs name and being done with it. Heâs […]
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By Anthony Castrovince/MLB.com On Twitter: @Castrovince Well, this figures, right? Ubaldo Jimenez arrives here as a would-be ace with so much wanted and expected from him. And for the better part of two calendar years, he stinks, quite frankly. In the 2011 playoff chase, when the Indians are desperately trying to keep pace with the […]
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By Anthony Castrovince/MLB.com On Twitter: @Castrovince None of the individual narratives seem to do justice to how fun and frustrating and ecstatic and exasperating and inherently weird this Cleveland Indians season has been. The Indians return home Thursday for the final homestand of 2013. Theyâve got a remaining schedule â four against Houston, two against […]
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By Anthony Castrovince/MLB.com On Twitter: @Castrovince Yan Gomes walked by, and an Indians official said, âThere goes our starting catcher.â Indeed, the transition is complete. Gomes has started at catcher in 22 of the Indiansâ last 36 games. Publicly, Terry Francona says what youâd expect him to say, but the proof is in the pudding […]
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